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The Middle East Mess Part One: Over There
The American Interest ^ | 9-14-12 | Walter Russell Mead

Posted on 09/15/2012 9:49:57 AM PDT by radioone

If Americans are going to understand what’s going on and process it effectively, the first thing we’ve got to realize is that this isn’t all about us. The riots in Cairo are basically part of a local power struggle. Radical Salafists are in a power struggle with the Muslim Brotherhood; attacking the US embassy forces President Morsi (as the radical strategists presumably expected) to side with the US, however slowly or reluctantly. That’s a win for the radicals, who want to tar the Muslim Brotherhood as soft appeasers who side with the Americans against their own outraged people.

Striking at the embassy pushes Egyptian politics in a more radical direction short term, and over the medium term it weakens the Muslim Brotherhood and strengthens the more radical groups. After these last attacks, you are not going to see many tourists or foreign investors traipsing to Egypt anytime soon. The already struggling Egyptian economy has taken a hit that will cut employment. That’s going to hurt, and it’s going to reduce the popularity of the government, much to the benefit of the radicals who hope to replace it.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.the-american-interest.com ...


TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: 9112012embassyattack; 911ii; egypt; egyptmb; mideast; morsi; muslimbrotherhood; obama; pickinandchoosin; salafis; salafists

1 posted on 09/15/2012 9:50:08 AM PDT by radioone
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To: radioone

Well, the same strategy worked for Khomeini in 79.


2 posted on 09/15/2012 9:57:54 AM PDT by Argus
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To: radioone
A Kissinger disciple over analyzes the situation, typical Statist BS.

Islam is only content at domination, Muslim Brotherhood included. Mead's useless IR BS just makes the situation worse.

Establish friendly relations over seas, if the natives don't want to play, move on. If previous relations were established and problems arises that harm various compacts, then use superior fire power and mass destruction to solve the problem. Foreign policy is easy, what screws up everything are useless theories, being dominated by foreign cultural hegemony (Sensitivity instead establishing your own will and wants) and appeasements that drains resources.

This trading secular power for Islamic power which kicked in gear in the '70s really works well, doesn't it. Extreme /s The al qaeda boogy man is just a small faction of a much larger problem, Islam in general, especially those who take the Quran seriously, like the Muslim Brotherhood for instance.

3 posted on 09/15/2012 10:12:59 AM PDT by rollo tomasi (Working hard to pay for deadbeats and corrupt politicians.)
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To: radioone

Oh, and by the way, it IS all about Western Civilization despite what “moderate” Islamic connections Mead formed that blinded him to 1300 years of what history taught us despite all the “good intentions” of his contacts.


4 posted on 09/15/2012 10:17:20 AM PDT by rollo tomasi (Working hard to pay for deadbeats and corrupt politicians.)
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That’s a win for the radicals, who want to tar the Muslim Brotherhood as soft appeasers who side with the Americans against their own outraged people.

Walter, bless your little heart, the Muslim Brotherhood are the radicals.

No doubt there's power struggles going on and all... but it makes little difference when the struggle is between two sets of extremists.

The moderates have been kicked so far to the curb in the US haste to support one set of radicals over another that the moderates are a distant, powerless minority.

5 posted on 09/15/2012 10:21:11 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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Morsi’s out there with al Qaeda wanting the release of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing conspirator Blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman and this dingleberry wants to call him and the MB “moderate.”


6 posted on 09/15/2012 10:24:45 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: piasa

If anything the MB is more dangerous because it knows how to use the western criminal justice system to its advantage and it is out to destroy the US constitution. It’s not just a bunch of wild eyed terrorists like the Taliban setting bombs off and screaming “death to America” - people who cannot infiltrate us or run for office because they are more intent on bloodshed than conquest -— the Muslim Brotherhood is subversive enough to not only use bombs to kill people, but to infiltrate, empower themselves, and use their own laws to prevent us from mounting a defense. They aim to destroy us culturally and even spiritually because their goal is conquest.


7 posted on 09/15/2012 10:35:01 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: radioone

Gee, Walt, thanks for your somewhat verbose analysis. Please use your vast knowledge to bring back the dead Americans. We don’t need someone droning on about why the traffic is so bad. We just need a cop to enforce the law.


8 posted on 09/15/2012 11:25:27 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: radioone

The only thing that is going to make the problem “go away,” is to make the problem (Islam) go away.


9 posted on 09/15/2012 11:38:57 AM PDT by Excellence (9/11 was an act of faith.)
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